Wildlife Diary Friday 8th June

Fish deliveries seem to be back on track again with a possible Salmon (our female started shredding it before we were able to confirm), a Rainbow Trout and a ubiquitous ‘Mystery Fish’. The ever growing chick has been well fed so much so it was refusing food earlier when its mum was determined to feed it. The chick is going from strength to strength and is becoming much darker and looking more like an osprey and less like a reptilian dinosaur every day. The feathers are clearly coming through on many parts of the body and it’s very active often roaming around the nest or wiggling around underneath its mother. She’s been huddled on the nest for most of today probably in response to the weather which has been wet and windy, a typical Scottish summer day!

Redstart have been at our feeding stations, they’re nesting nearby so they might become regular visitors. Our mother Great Spotted Woodpecker has also been here today feeding one of her chicks. The Red Squirrel kit has been back again and seems determined to chew its way into the box instead of lifting the lid!

Both Blue Tit boxes are doing well, the older clutch of four will be ready to fledge and you can see them testing their wings. The younger clutch are only a few days old and are being constantly fed by mum and day. Amazingly all seven eggs hatched but today I could only see six chicks, it’s not unusual for one or more chicks not to survive but we’ll keep watching.

Finally thanks to Joyce Rawlings (no relation to Emma) for this pic of one of our osprey’s more unusual fans.

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